Conformed or Transformed?

Romans 12:1-2 are some of my favorite verses in God's Word. I am supposed to live my life as a living sacrifice...one who is HOLY and PLEASING to God. I do this by not conforming to the world and allowing myself to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

First I look at the word "holy". Holy is being set apart for God's use. Set apart means I am just that....set apart. I am in the world, but not of it. I think differently, act differently, talk differently, AM different. The world says I need to look out for me and please me. Do what feels good and follow your heart. It's easy to get caught up in that, because it feels good at the moment. God says I need to put all of my focus on pleasing HIM and Him alone! I please God by not conforming to the pattern of the world, but by being transformed, and although possibly hard at the time, it has a long-term peace and it feels GREAT. Transformation starts in your mind in allowing God to penetrate every thought and transform it.

So, in our struggle to fight against sin, we must allow God to transform our every thought. It starts by being real...letting Him see the good, the bad and the ugly. He can handle our honesty and transform it and that's when we walk in victory and please HIM.

Lord, transform my mind. I want my whole life to be holy and a pleasing sacrifice to You!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Those words are like salve to a sore. They are healing, but sometimes it hurts at first. The implication is that we ARE conforming to world and we need to stop it! What I fing interesting is that they are inseperable. You cannot have non-conformity with the world unless trasformation is begun, and vice-versa. Also, this is the preface to knowing and understanding God's will. Ewwwww! How can we know what God has for us? By having our minds changed to think like Christ.
November 16, 2006 at 9:53:00 AM EST
Daryl said…
The world works on us like the waves work on everything around the ocean. It is a constant force, it never lets up, it never gives us a break. Just as the waves constantly pound the shore eroding it away, so the world trys to wear us down and into conformaty to it's will. We must come to expect that constant beating that the world puts on us, but we must NEVER give in to it. We must be more determined to remain transformed in the face of the world's eroding forces of conformity. We must begin each day renewed for battle, outfitted with the complete armor of God.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says;

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
We can ill afford to allow the temporary forces of this world to conform us away from our eternal God and His PERFECT will for our lives. Eternal transformation... that's what it's all about.
November 16, 2006 at 2:57:00 PM EST
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